University of Cape Town Opera School
The Opera Department attached to the University of Cape Town.
Now known as Opera UCT, under the directorship of Jeremy Silver.
Origins
Established in 1954 at the South African College of Music (SACM) at the University of Cape Town to ensure that singers could receive formal vocal and academic training to prepare them for a professional career in opera.
Staff
The Italian Gregorio Fiasconaro was the first director. Angelo Gobbato was also director until his retirement, when the first non-Italian, the American conductor Kamal Khan, took over. Khan left the Opera School in 2016.
Purpose
It provides training in all aspects of opera performance, and although it stages performances for the public, the SACM and its opera activities are primarily focused on the training of opera students.
The University of Cape Town Opera Company was associated to the Opera School.
Sources
Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.
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